I swam around the bottom of the small pool expecting to see all of the beautiful girls with the boys laughing at me if I surfaced. The life guard blew her whistle and right then Bridget flew off the end of the slide and landed on top of me. The life guard continued to blow her whistle. Bridget grabbed my arm pulled me up out of the water.
She was laughing and yelling, “What the hell?! I could have killed you!” I was in a panic. I couldn’t let the bitchy girl and her friends see my fat rolls. Bridget climbed out first and I followed, staying as close to her as possible, hiding. I walked over to our towels, put on my cover up and sat down.
“Does anyone have any money? I’m thirsty,” Lisa asked.
“No. I just had enough to get in,” Ann said.
“Me too. My mom almost didn’t want to give me that,” said Bridget. I nodded indicating that was my situation too. Ann and Bridget headed back up the stairs for another run down the slide.
Lisa and I walked over to the drinking fountain. My stomach hurt when the cold water hit it. On our way back some kids from school, who were in class with Lisa’s brother, said hi to her. That’s the way it always goes, I thought, of course they notice her. She’s thin. We sat in the sun quietly watching people splash one by one into the pool, laughing joyously.
As we sat on the sun deck I felt the sweat drip down my chest and pool between my breasts which were already a C cup, obscenely big for a fourteen year old girl as far as I was concerned.
Much of the water from the waterslide had dried from my swimsuit but what had dried was becoming drenched with sweat and clinging to my skin like plastic wrap on a moist ham. I could feel pimples forming on my butt as we sat there and I wiped the sweat off my face with the sleeve of my terry cloth cover up. Lisa’s sweat was masked with Coppertone oil which glimmered on every inch of her bronzed skin. She smelled like Hawaii. I was sure I smelled like a sweaty ham in a locker room.
Ann and Bridget raced back and shook their wet heads all over us. Safely covered from neck to knee to wrist, I jumped up and chased after them. We ran toward the steps and as we got closer I felt myself start to spin and I lost my balance. My head continued to spin as I closed my eyes and reached out to grab the railing and catch myself. I leaned my sweaty butt against it while I stood with my head down thanking God that I was wearing my cover up as I stood folded in half with my head by my knees and my fat forming rolls at my middle. When I looked up all three of my friends were silently staring at me.
“Are you OK?” asked Bridget after a couple of seconds.
“You don’t look very good.” said Ann.
“I think I almost fainted. I stood up too fast. I’ll be OK. I just need to go back over there and sit down.”
Ann looked me in the eye. “OK. But…hey, did you eat today?”